Talk:Psychoanalysis

Richard Feynman quote relevant?

In the criticism section, under "debate over status as scientific," quite a lengthy quote by Richard Feynman is cited. I'm not sure why a physicist's opinion on psychoanalysis is relevant, I can't think of any other reason for this being here other than Feynman being a sort of pop science guy. I think the preceding quote is good enough for this section, unless someone brings up a good point otherwise I think this quote should be omitted. TheWhitenessOfTheWhale (talk) 15:46, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

I think you're right. I've removed it. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:11, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

Proposed edits - 2 sections

Two sections contain unsupported material and original synthesis (WP:SYNTH, WP:V):

1. The section links the primal-horde hypothesis to Prometheus, Pandora, Plato's spherical humans, Atra-Hasis, feudalism and monotheism. None of these connections appears in the cited Freud texts, and much of the section is uncited. It also reverses the chronology: it presents the Oedipus complex as derived from the primal-horde hypothesis, when Freud formulated the complex in 1899 and extended it to prehistory in Totem and Taboo (1913). I propose replacing the section with a short summary:

In Totem and Taboo (1913), Freud extended the Oedipus complex to the origins of culture. Drawing on Darwin's conjecture of a "primal horde," he proposed that a band of brothers killed and devoured their despotic father and, out of remorse and guilt, instituted the prohibitions against murder and incest that he saw as the basis of totemism, morality, and religion.[SE XIII] He returned to the thesis in Moses and Monotheism (1939). [SE XXIII] The hypothesis was rejected by anthropologists, notably Alfred Kroeber,[Kroeber 1920] and Freud himself later acknowledged it as a "Just-So Story," as it had been called by a critic.[Group Psychology, SE XVIII, p. 122]

2. Life and death drives, paragraph 3 (predation, sperm competition, the "Titanic brotherhood," Pandora). This paragraph has no citations, and as far as I know none of it appears in Freud. The first paragraph, on Aristophanes' myth in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, is accurate. I'd also replace the second paragraph with Freud's own definition of the two drives from An Outline of Psycho-Analysis:

In his late formulation, Freud described the aim of Eros as "to establish ever greater unities and to preserve them," and that of the death drive as "to undo connections and so to destroy things," its final aim being "to lead what is living into an inorganic state."[An Outline of Psycho-Analysis, SE XXIII, p. 148]

I welcome any feedback/objections. If none in about 1 week, I will proceed with the changes. Bexford (talk) 14:21, 19 September 2026 (UTC)